Media Matters Puts Tax-Exempt Status in Jeopardy

David Brock, chairman and chief executive of Media Matters for America, told a news website earlier this year that his nonprofit is now moving to “sabotage” FOX News because it says the network is now the “de facto head of the GOP,” among other things.

Anchors and guests appearing on FOX News have said because of such statements, the nonprofit is violating U.S. tax law.

There is no indication the IRS is auditing or probing Media Matters for these alleged violations.

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However, interviews with current and former IRS officials, tax lawyers and tax experts, as well as a review of Media Matters’ IRS documents and its activities indicate the nonprofit has put its tax-exempt status in jeopardy for reasons beyond those allegations.

But these charges are serious. Given that Media Matters is a tax-free nonprofit, the government is effectively supporting its efforts to disrupt the commercial enterprises of a taxpaying business. The government is also effectively supporting its partisan activities that the nonprofit was ostensibly created to monitor in the first place, a problem also at right-wing nonprofits.